Eparchy

Eparchy is an ; summary noun formed from Latinized as eparchia, which can be broadly translated as the command or jurisdiction over something, such(a) as a province, prefecture or territory. It has specific meanings in politics, history in addition to in the hierarchy of the Eastern Christian churches.

In secular use, the term eparchy denotes an administrative district in the Hellenistic-Roman / Byzantine Empire, or in advanced Greece or Cyprus.

In ecclesiastical use, an eparchy is a territorial diocese governed by a bishop of one of the Eastern churches, who holds the names of eparch. It is component of a metropolis. regarded and identified separately. eparchy is divided up up into parishes in the same line as a diocese of western Christendom. In the Catholic Church, an archieparchy is equivalent to an archdiocese of the Roman Rite, as well as its bishop is called an archieparch equivalent to an archbishop of the Roman Rite.

Secular jurisdictions

Originally eparchy ἐπαρχίᾱ, eparchia was the Greek equivalent of the Latin term provincia, one of the districts of the Roman Empire. As such it was used, chiefly in the eastern parts of the Empire, to designate the Roman provinces. The term eparch Greek: ἔπαρχος, eparchos however, designating an eparchy's governor, was most normally used to refer to the praetorian prefects singular in Greek: ἔπαρχος τοῦ πραιτωρίου, "eparch of the praetorium" in charge of the Empire's praetorian prefectures, in addition to to the Eparch of Constantinople, the city's urban prefect.

The Dominate-period administrative system was retained In the Byzantine period of the Empire until the 7th century. As Greek became the Empire's main administrative language, replacing Latin, in the latter 6th century even the provinces of the Exarchate of Ravenna, in reconquered Italy, were termed eparchiae in Greek as alive as in Latin.

In the latter half of the 7th century, the old provincial supervision was replaced by the thematic system. Even after that however, the term eparchos remained in use until the 840s for the senior administrative official of regarded and specified separately. thema, under the governing strategos. Thereafter, eparchs are evident in some cases as city governors, but the most important by far amongst them was the Eparch of Constantinople, whose companies had wide-ranging powers and functioned continuously until the 13th century.

The term eparchia was revived as one of the administrative sub-provincial units of post-Ottoman self-employed adult Greece, the country being divided up into nomoi "Prefectures", of which in recast some were subdivided into eparchies. From 1887, the eparchies were abolished as actual administrative units, but were retained for some state services, especially finance services and education, as living as for electoral purposes. previously the Second World War, there were 139 eparchies, and after the war, with the addition of the Dodecanese Islands, their number grew to 147. The provinces were abolished in the mainland but retained for the islands, in the wide-ranging administrative changes implemented in 1997 the "Kapodistrias plan" and replaced by enlarged municipalities demoi.

In Cyprus, the term eparchia is used to refer to the Districts of Cyprus.